Cohocton Wind Watch is a community citizen organization dedicated to preserve the public safety, property values, economic viability, environmental integrity and quality of life in Cohocton, NY and in surrounding townships. Neighbors committed to public service in order to achieve a reasonable vision for a Finger Lakes region worthy of future generations.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

With all the letters and editorials this summer in the Watertown Daily Times regarding the Wolfe Island wind project, (at least two or three a week), it’s surprising that there has been so little about this subject in the Whig-Standard. Do the people of Kingston and area enjoy the new scenery with the flashing red lights, or do they care? Maybe those who care have just given up on the process. “They’re going to put them up anyway” has become the attitude.One of the most beautiful areas of the North American continent has become the target for wind turbine projects put up by giant international corporations that, if they have their way, plan to fill the entire Great Lakes basin with these industrial parks.

There is a lot more to the issue than being for or against “green” energy. In Ontario (and New York state), the control of wind energy has been put into the hands of large international corporations, which has turned the whole “green” energy movement on its head. Residents of some municipalities in Ontario no longer have a say in what happens to their communities. A handful of landowners are able to dictate not only what the people in their own community, but the thousands of people in a 20-to-25-mile radius, must live with.

People, like myself, who once fully supported the idea of wind energy are now so upset with the lopsided and unfair corporate deals and processes that went on in public and behind the scenes within their local and provincial governments that any new “green energy” project coming their way will be looked at with a jaundiced eye. There will not be the support for these “green” projects that a person new to this issue would expect.

The Wolfe Island wind turbine project should serve as a warning to all the rural communities around the Great Lakes. These communities should take careful note of what has happened on Wolfe Island so that they can prevent the same thing from happening to them.

Risks of Industrial Wind Turbines is a group of citizens and organizations dedicated to preserve the public safety, property values, economic viability, environmental integrity and quality of life of residents and future generations.